Auburn offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn talk as the their team warms up before taking on Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Jake Crandall

Pat Dye used to call it Amen Corner, that dangerous stretch that began in November for the Auburn Tigers.

Florida left the annual schedule a generation ago. Yet Auburn’s November may be even more treacherous now.

Call it the Highway to Hell.

A year ago, the Tigers made history with back-to-back upsets of Georgia and Alabama, heading into December with a College Football Playoff on the line. But both of those games were at home. Advantage, Auburn.

This year’s November may well be one to forget. Just don’t blame the 2018 Tigers. Blame the schedule makers.

Georgia and Alabama are again top-five teams. In truth, Alabama may need a category of its own.

And as the Tigers proved Saturday night, this is not the road to take in even years. Not when Auburn must play its two biggest rivals in a course of three weeks on the road.

Saturday night, Auburn was game for a half and competitive for three quarters. Then D’Andre Swift got loose, headed left and was last seen 77 yards later in the end zone, icing Georgia’s 27-10 victory.

The limits to the 2018 Tigers have been evident for most of the season. While Georgia may not yet be playing as well as it did a January ago, it’s still on a different level. And Alabama? Well, if you’re an Auburn fan, Nov. 24 looks like a great day to attend a wedding.

The short-term reality is that Auburn will likely finish the regular season 7-5 and head to a second-tier bowl game. There’s no shame in that after a remarkable 2017.

But the long-term reality is that AU athletic director Allen Greene’s suggestion needs to be shouted from the mountaintops.

Last week, Greene suggested there needed to be “breathing room” on the schedule between Auburn’s dates against Georgia and Alabama.

Wiser words were never spoken.

Few teams face a November gauntlet as overwhelming, especially among the handful of programs with national title aspirations. It’s a competitive disadvantage for Auburn. It’s also a serious recruiting disadvantage because of the lack of marquee home dates every other November.

Greene’s breathing room suggestion makes even more sense when you consider Georgia is a rival from another division. Move the game to the third Saturday in October. Works for Alabama and Tennessee.

When Greene speaks to his peers in Destin, Florida, next spring, they need to hear his message. It won’t help this season.

But it makes sense to put Auburn’s Highway to Hell in the rearview mirror.